Spirit of Chrismas

On the Dec. 13, I was shopping and I picked up $70 worth of gift certificates from Richmond Centre for the Richmond Christmas Fund. I put my bags down and not realizing, I dropped the little bag with the gift certificates in it, and I walked away.

When I got home about an hour later I realized what had happened so my mom drove me back to the mall right away. I had this feeling that they would've been stolen because it was such a large sum of money.

I went to the customer service counter and asked if they had had anyone drop off any found mall gift certificates. I thought to myself, "there goes 70 bucks down the drain that I will have to respend again."

But I was completely wrong.

The woman at customer service told me that a couple of "young Asian girls" had found it at the bench where I dropped it.

I would just like to thank those young girls because it really shows how the Christmas spirit comes into play during the holidays and always!

Sour grapes are in season

While generally renowned for its cranberry and blueberry production, it seems that Richmond now has a rather large supply of sour grapes to add to its agricultural output.

I speak of those that just can't bring themselves to admit that Richmond MP Joe Peschisolido played a key role in the DFO land transfer to the City of Richmond.

It is highly ironic that the likes of Raymond Chan and John Cummins should accuse Peschisolido of self-promotion. The former is running nomination ads in every media outlet in the riding while Cummins, having realized that the newly-acquired land will be in his new riding is now offering to step up the pressure on the new Martin administration to finalize and agreement quickly. I'm sure that Prime Minister Paul Martin will be waiting by the phone for John's call.

The former prime minister, former senior B.C. minister Herb Dhaliwal, the president of the Treasury Board, the former minister of Fisheries and Oceans, the MP for Richmond, the mayor of Richmond, Canada Lands Company and, finally, Tourism Richmond all accept that the transfer has been formally approved and is being-not will be-finalized shortly.

The truth is that Chan, Cummins, et al., are just jealous of the achievements of their political foe.

Land not in sight

Contrary to the gossip flying around, contrary to Joe Peschisolido's boast, and contrary to all the self-promoting propaganda our current MP is distributing all over Richmond, there is no DFO land transfer.

The DFO land transfer has been argued over for years, and now, rather than on the verge of being resolved, has actually been pushed to further conflict due to the Musqueum land claim.

There will be many years more before the land transfer settles down. The chances that the land goes to Richmond are as good as the land going to anyone else laying a claim on it, at this point.

A friendly thank you

On behalf of the Friends of the Richmond Public Library, I would like to thank Greg Buss, the city's chief librarian for nominating the Friends of the Library for the Constellation Award for Community Service at the recent Volunteers are Stars Gala.

It was truly appreciated by the members of the Friends to be recognized in such a formal and community-wide manner. The Friends also appreciate the welcome and assistance we receive from the entire staff at all the branch libraries, and look forward to the opening of the new Cambie Branch in January.

I would also like to thank the many sponsors of the Volunteers are Stars Gala for organizing the event and for recognizing the many contributions that all the volunteers of Richmond make to this community.

Richmond is indeed a very fortunate community, rich in resources and in particular its many volunteer resources.

Seniors need an advocate

I read with great interest the story by Chris Bryan regarding the "senior" situation in a housing complex ("Seniors claim they are being treated unfairly," Richmond Review, Dec. 06/07).

Hooray for Quentin! The hoops he had to jump through must have taken so much energy-just so he could enjoy TV. Quentin was willing to fight the good fight against the pervasive dominance of "those in power" over the seniors.

Seniors who are forced to live on minimal income have few choices in their life. Their future consists of hospital or long-term care followed by the funeral. What few pleasures they can find to see them through the balance of their years should not have to be so hard fought to achieve.

Unfortunately, the power-tripping and insensitive people put in charge of the daily lives of the seniors frequently creates hardship and instills fear. These people do what they do-always in the name of "the job" or "the rules."

Is there no room for a seniors' advocate? An unbiased voice with no government, business or benefactor connection who can speak for the old ones who are afraid to speak for themselves.

Full serve is just fine

Re: Self-service vs the existing full-serve gas station fill-ups.

I agree with this Richmond councillors who say: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Why, in heaven's name, would Richmondites agree (without even a whimper) to downgrade our service station service to the lowest common denominator that the surrounding municipalities (except Coquitlam) have to put up with while paying more for the full service Richmond motorists have long enjoyed.

To rub salt in our wounds it is proposed that a very limited number (probably one per station) of full service pumps be provided making the self-service pumps seem more desirable to avoid long lineups.

In Richmond, where we have enjoyed full service for decades, it costs us no more than in self-serve areas, somehow, the stations, no doubt compensated by the oil companies in some way in order to compete, have managed to keep afloat all these decades.

What I especially want to see survive are all those jobs for our hard-working Richmond teenagers.

The companies tell us that no jobs will be lost. How naive do they think we are? For every self-serve pump no longer needing a gas jockey there will be jobs lost, no matter how they spin it.

Right now, thanks to past, far-sighted councillors, it is the law: no self-serve stations in Richmond. The frustrated companies know that there is no way around this unless there bleating can delude council into doing the wrong thing: rescind the bylaw.

Don't let this happen. Just this once, we, the little people, have the bloated oil companies where we want them. Let's keep it that way.

Give the gift of life

When I was nine years old I had yellow jaundice. Therefore it left me unable to donate blood for the rest of my life.

I felt guilty for that but accepted it and hoped I would never need to request it in the future.

At 49 years of age, three weeks ago, I found myself in that very position of a much needed three units blood transfusion.

For whoever's blood I received-thank you. To the wonderful staff at Richmond General-thank you. And to everyone this Christmas, please, if you can, give the gift of life-blood. Have a happy and safe holiday.